Batten down the hatches!

You can’t be a cyclist is Seattle and be afraid of riding in the rain. Come October until June, it can happen anytime. So if you are afraid to get wet, you might as well buy a lifecycle and hang up helmet.

That being said, there are days that are simply NOT made for riding. Today, hell this weekend, is one of these.

I woke up today to find this weather map:

Yep, it really is as wet as it looks on there….

Now I have a strange quirk. Hell probably a lot of them. But this one involves rain and cycling. If I start when it is dry and the rain hits me mid trip, I finish the ride. I won’t melt. I might complain a bit during and after, and need a hot shower to warm up afterwards, but I get it done. Michelle always has hot water on the stove for a warm beverage on days like that.

However, the act of leaving a perfectly dry and warm house, getting on the bike and starting down the road when its raining…Yeah that doesn’t happen often.

So when I saw what was coming, I knew the time had come. Not riding at all was not an option. After a cranky day yesterday, I knew I needed to work out somehow. SO yep, it was time for the first shed ride of the fall.

For those of you new to the blog, or at least new since spring, I have a set up in the shed with a bike trainer and a DVD player. Now don’t get the wrong idea. This is not one of those flywheel jobs that attaches to your bike and holds you up if you stop.

I have a set of cycle-ops rollers.

If I stop pedaling, I fall over. (Trust me I speak from experience on this.)

Basically I am riding my bike on a perfectly flat trail, (a 2-3 foot wide trail) there is just no opportunity for coasting. I had planned to watch Diehard, but forgot to grab a movie as I went out. In the player was Last of the Mohicans, which worked perfectly.

This was also the first time in 5 years I was riding on the rollers with a different bike. It has narrower tires and I sit a bit taller than the last one. I wasn’t worried, but wanted to pay attention a bit more.

Crashing indoors sucks more than outside, as I find there is more to hit or injure you. I am reminded of the time I started to fall over, I reached out to grab the wall and instead grabbed a wood saw… It has since been moved.

The ‘ride’ went well! I pushed it some, after getting my “sea legs” under me. It was a flat out 40 minute ride, for 10 miles. I could’ve gone farther, but its a different kind of riding, and I was spent, going longer meant a better chance of falling. As always when I do this, I was dripping sweat. BUT I was warm and the bike stayed dry.

Came in, took a shower, and then spent the rest of the day running errands, and getting things done. The two most important? Getting the Papa Murphy’s ALL MEAT family size pizza for the Manchild and his buddy for their afternoon of Nintendo Super Smash Brothers (the tournament is next week you know). The other was going with Michelle to take care of mom for a bit. She had a double heart operation a couple of days ago. Both can be listed as a success! OH, and I was out of cat food, got that too!

The rain event? Well it had its moments, as you saw above. But at least at the writing of this post it really wasn’t much to talk about. I will still grab the rain gear:

and being outside as much as I can. I still want to bike commute home whenever possible. But I also have a cabinet full of “great” (at least in my mind) movies to watch: Conan, 3 Diehards, Tombstone, Serenity, the entire Firefly season. The more that blows up, the better it works in the shed!

Now let’s see if I can find plans for an ark on-line! I need two of each kind of bike…..